Marketers' confidence increases

04 September 2013

LONDON: Confidence about prospects for the UK marketing industry has registered its highest level for 12 months, according to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), the profession's representative body.

Its latest quarterly Confidence Monitor found overall confidence had risen by almost 12 points since April, a rate five times higher than a year ago, but some concerns remain about job security and the effective use of consumer insights.

The poll of over 1,000 CIM members found 40% of marketers who work in larger firms feared a "high risk to their job security" over the next 12 months and 55% believed insights into consumer behaviour were not used proactively by their colleagues in the early stages of business planning.

Even though 70% said they received support and buy-in from senior management, the CIM warned that businesses should do more to build on the strengths of their marketing departments.

"Marketers have weathered the storm and the green shoots are beginning to flower,"said Anne Godfrey, CEO of the CIM.

"However, for this to be translated into tangible and sustainable growth, businesses must embrace marketing and customer insight as a valuable contribution to their planning and strategy," she added.

The CIM study follows a series of relatively upbeat reports about the UK economy, including GfK NOP's finding that consumer sentiment in August reached its highest level since 2009.

Elsewhere, the Confederation of British Industry has revised up its forecast for growth to between 1-2% in 2013 and 2.2% in 2014.

And the latest Bellwether study from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising found 22% of marketers said they had increased their media spend in the three months to the end of June compared to 15% who have cut spending.

Further positive findings for the industry have been outlined in Warc's latest Global Marketing Index, which showed business conditions improved in August, with the index rising to 55.6 from 54.3 in July.

The increase of the global GMI measure was led by a 1.9 point monthly rise in the Americas to 58.3 and that Europe's headline GMI also rose 1.9 points to 54.8.